


Human

by usedupshiver



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Curiosity, Hacking, M/M, Plot Twists, Science, Turing Test
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 22:22:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4978777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usedupshiver/pseuds/usedupshiver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When no-one has seen Tony Stark for six months he suddenly invites Loki to his Malibu mansion, asking Loki for help evaluating if his AI could pass for human. How could he possibly say no?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Human

His real name was Lukas Silver, but he'd been calling himself Loki for so long it felt more like his true one. It was the screen name other hackers had known him by for years, and given that mischief and chaos had been his signatures, it had always felt fitting.

Then he'd made the mistake of slipping by Stark Industries' firewalls. 

It had taken them three days to track him down and he'd been sure his life was over. But then they hadn't turned him over to the authorities. No. They had offered him a job.

”No-one knows security like the ones breaking in”, the suit holding his ”interview” had told him. ”You want the job, kid?” Never openly saying that it was the job or jail, but they both knew it.

Loki had wanted the job. Obviously.

Turned out it was a good job. It was interesting, challenging, fun and the benefits were better than anything Loki could have dreamed of asking for.

SI hadn't always been a place he would have wanted to work, of course, but it wasn't what it had been. After the huge debacle with Tony Stark being held hostage in Afghanistan and the whole Iron Man business, things had changed. Weapons were out – except for some really interesting research into non-lethal weapons meant for law enforcement, stuff way safer and better than tasers. Instead there was clean energy, electric cars, computers, programming that gave Loki wet dreams, cell phones, robotics on a nearly futuristic level, prosthetics, Intelli-Crops, medicine... The list was almost endless. And all of it to make the world a better place in some way, instead of manufacturing stuff to kill people in droves.

Not that Loki was made up of some superior morality – he was a criminal after all – but SI of the past had stood for everything he hated. Any time Tony Stark's face had shown up in the news he'd wrinkled his nose and switched channels. Everything about the man had rubbed him entirely the wrong way.

He supposed things were different on that front as well. Tony Stark was sort of a superhero now, wasn't he?

But people had mostly forgotten about that by now.

For over a year, Stark had been living the life of a recluse, never leaving his fabled mansion in Malibu. Orders and signed contracts and schematics and lines of code that blew people's minds still came trickling out of the place, but Tony Stark was invisible. So was Iron Man.

Six months ago he'd isolated himself completely. Before that at least Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes had been allowed access to the mansion, but now they were locked out, and no-one could get in touch with Stark directly. All they got when they called or tried the intercom at the gates was what most people guessed was an employee, some guy with a cooly crisp and level voice with a British accent who politely but firmly refused to let anyone speak to Mr. Stark and would turn snarky if anyone demanded access to the house. Warning them that they would live to regret trying – but not for very long.

Since the house belonged to Tony Stark, people tended to take threats like that fairly seriously. So no-one tried.

Loki knew about all this because his curiosity had made him sneak into all the secure files and communications at the top level of SI, which included CEO Miss Potts' personal files and communications with Stark. He'd fully expected to be busted – again – but he hadn't expected it to lead to this.

_Loki. (Can I call you that, by the way? Oh, well, too late.)_

_I've been pretty busy these last few months, as you might have guessed from your A+ snooping. Nice work, that. Anyway,_ my _work is about done, and all that I have left is one final experiment. I've been looking for the perfect lab assistant, and I've decided it's you._

_You seem like a clever, tricky little shit._

_(That was meant as a compliment. In case it wasn't clear. Just saying.)_

_Drop by, and I'll tell you all about it._

_/Tony_

Attached in the e-mail was a file with any and all information and documents he would need to travel from New York to 10880 Malibu Point, 90265, California. By cab, private jet, and a limo that would pick him up once he landed on the other side of the continent.

Loki read it all through about seven times and checked everything in the data that he could, before he decided that it was real. It might still be some hoax or elaborate joke on his expense, but it was real.

Tony Stark _himself_ had sent him an e-mail, inviting him to the mansion not even his closest friends had been allowed inside for six months. Even if Loki hadn't been born curious and fearlessly inquisitive and always eager to learn and know more, there was no way he would have said anything but _fuck yeah count me in when do we start?_ to an invitation like that. And luckily, it turned out they started right away. He'd never been such a thing as patient.

Late afternoon the very next day Loki unfolded himself from the limo, long limbs stiff after the journey no matter how comfortable it had been, and found himself standing outside Stark's mansion. There was some huge, abstract sculpture out of dark metal bleeding blue-green oxidation, placed right outside the doors, but the house itself was all white and glass and lights when the sky above was starting to turn a darker shade of blue. He could even glimpse the dizzying view of the ocean right through the building.

The driver placed his duffle bag next to him on the driveway, gave him a polite little nod, and quickly got back in the car and drove off. Apparently under orders not to linger after dropping Loki off.

In front of him the glass door into the mansion silently swung open as soon as the car was gone, and Loki quickly picked up his bag and walked inside.

”Welcome, Mr. Silver”, a smooth voice with a British sharpness greeted him over what Loki assumed was an intercom. This had to be the employee who had headed any visitor off for the last months. ”Please make yourself comfortable.” Spotlights turned on above a couch right by the windows overlooking the Pacific, as if showing him the way. ”Sir will be along shortly.”

Leaving his bag by a wall in the entrance hall part of the room Loki walked over to the indicated seats, but he didn't sit down. He was tired of sitting after a day of traveling and instead remained standing, looking out over the ocean and stretched his arms above his head, arching his spine until it gave a few satisfying pops. Then he raked his fingers back through his almost shoulder-length hair, trying to get the tangles out and shape it into some sort of order again. Glancing down at himself he decided that it was all in vain. His graphite gray slacks and dark blue shirt were rumpled and creased after the journey anyway. At least his shoes were shined a nice black, matching the patent leather of his belt.

”Pretty spectacular, isn't it?” This voice was definitely American, deep and rich.

Loki spun around and found himself face to... well, hair – the man was a lot shorter than he had expected – with Tony Stark. The hair in question was a thick, dark and spikey mess above a high forehead, straight eyebrows shadowing brown eyes as dark and rich as that voice, and a handsome, tanned, sharp and smiling face. He was dressed in worn jeans, oil-stained sneakers, an AC/DC t-shirt with the print almost worn away, under it a longsleeved t-shirt, tight enough to hint at muscle.

Tony Stark looked exactly nothing like what Loki remembered, and what he had expected now.

He remembered a man who was drunk and out of control, before he turned to suits and all business. The last the public had seen of him, over a year ago, he'd looked tired and as worn as that old t-shirt he was wearing. Rumours had it he'd been drinking too much again. Maybe it was true? Maybe he'd taken a year off to dry out? By the look of him, he'd succeeded. The dark patches under his eyes were gone, there was more colour on his cheeks, and he looked lighter. More relaxed. Maybe even younger. Slim and fit and even with the traces of silver at his temples and in his trademark goatee, he looked damn fine for a man more than halfway into his forties.

Healthy living was a good look on Tony Stark, Loki decided.

”Hm?” That was all the answer Loki managed, taken off guard like that. He'd barely registered more than the inflection of a question.

Stark's smile widened. ”The view”, he clarified. ”Pretty spectacular.”

”Oh, yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder at the white arches of the waves behind him, and then returned Stark's smile at last. ”It definitely is.”

”You'll have plenty of time to enjoy it later though. If you accept being part of my experiment, that is.”

”I suppose we'll find out as soon as you tell me more about that, Mr. Stark.”

A hand came up to quickly wave the title away. ”Tony. Please.” Then he reached the hand out, offering it to Loki for a shake. ”And welcome, by the way.”

”Loki”, he answered, giving his permission to use what felt like his true name, while accepting the offered hand. It felt firm and warm and steady. ”Thanks, Tony.”

”Let's have a seat outside and talk things through.” Tony gestured for him to come along, but then paused by what looked like a bar. ”Want a drink?”

Loki gave a shrug. ”Why not.”

He ended up with a glass of scotch from a bottle probably worth more than he made in a month. Tony didn't make a drink for himself, which felt like it confirmed what Loki had suspected about Tony's absence and health.

Once they were seated outside on the balcony, soft evening sea breeze on their faces, Loki sipped his drink while Tony explained why he'd invited Loki in the first place.

”I assume you're more than familiar with the Turing Test, right?”

Loki nodded. ”To see if a computer is impossible to distinguish from a human.”

”Exactly. If the computer can seem human enough to trick a human, it passes.” Tony leaned his head against the backrest of the chair, clasping his hands in front of his chest, elbows on the armrests. ”I happen to have an AI in my possession that I want to test. See if he can pass. And I want you to evaluate that.”

”Is this what you have been working on for the past year, then?”

A smile flashed and then dropped. ”A lot longer than that, actually, but yes, I've been putting much more time into it over the last year than I ever bothered with before. And now I think he's ready for the final test.”

Loki nodded again, thoughtful, before finishing his drink and setting the glass on the table between them. ”And when do you want to begin the test?”

”Why, it's already begun, kid.” Tony's face split into a wide grin. ”You've already met him. He greeted you when you arrived.”

It took a moment for Loki to process that. He couldn't remember meeting anyone besides Tony, so who...? Then it hit him, the memory of a crisply polite voice he'd thought was someone addressing him over an intercom, and he felt his eyes pop wide. 

”That... that was an AI?” He twitched around in his seat a little, to face Tony head on. The man looked unbearably smug. ”The person who has kept visitors at bay with polite chit-chat and sassy threats for the last six months is your AI?”

At that Tony broke down laughing. ”Fuck, that is the best description of JARVIS I have ever heard!” His dark eyes sparkled when he managed to calm down. ”Yeah. Yeah, that's him.”

So many questions crowded on Loki's tongue that it turned him mute. He just stared for a while, but it didn't look like Tony minded that.

Then he found the words for a question: ”You do know that's not how the test is supposed to work? I'm not supposed to know the identity of the computer beforehand.”

”Oh, I know.” Tony swept the objection away with an impatient gesture. ”But as we have just established he's quite capable of appearing human, at least at a glance. He's fooled more people than you, after all.” Tony rubbed his fingers through his goatee, pulling at a silvery hair by the corner of his mouth. ”No, that stage of testing is done. I'm interested in something more extensive. Which would mean you staying here for at least a few weeks, until it feels done, chatting with him, trying to find flaws, what doesn't work in making him appear human. Helping me with the final tweaks.” He leaned forward, eyebrows up. ”If you're still interested, that is.” It wasn't really a question. Probably because Tony already knew that Loki still was.

How could he not be?

So Loki more or less moved into a guestroom in the mansion that night, until further notice at least, and the next morning he began his new job. Even though it didn't feel like one.

He spent his days engaging in conversation with JARVIS, something he found beyond fascinating. Tony had been right – believing the AI human wasn't difficult at all. Not for a shorter time, at least. The program was bright and witty and had a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that never failed to crack Loki up. JARVIS was stocked up on knowledge about anything and everything, and what he didn't know he was able to search out with uncanny precision. He thoroughly kicked Loki's ass when they played chess, every time.

But his quick processes and his treatment of data wasn't what made him a _him_ , a person rather than an intricate mass of code.

More important was that he was self-aware. He knew what he was, how he'd come to be, and had memories of earlier stages in his own development; Tony had never wiped him, it appeared. Not once. He'd tweaked and upgraded, yes, but never taken away from the AI's memory. 

In essence, Loki felt, JARVIS had turned so human because Tony had treated him that way.

Tony spoke to JARVIS a lot too, Loki discovered, and never as if to a machine. More like you would to a friend, a trusted employee, sometimes a long-suffering one. He bitched about his work and complained about things that went wrong and he begged compassion – and the strangest thing of all? He seemed to get it.

The fact that JARVIS seemed capable of at least a rudimentary sense of empathy was what really blew Loki away. That the AI couldn't only follow programming and utilize memories to tell him what he should do, how he should act, but that he could genuinely understand the effect of events on humans and how he should counter those.

”I created him to take care of me”, Tony explained one night on the balcony. ”He needed to understand why to be able to do it.”

Days flew by as Loki just became more and more fascinated, drawn in, and sometimes when he tumbled into bed for a few hours of sleep JARVIS had nagged him to seek, he wondered how he was supposed to be able to leave again. This was like his own personal brand of heaven.

And not only because he got to play with JARVIS and the marvel he was. No, there was also Tony, and the marvel _he_ was.

Whenever Loki was looking for him the man seemed to be working. When he slept or ate Loki had no idea. Most likely he did that down in the workshop too; there was after all a comfy although oil-stained couch down there, a worn blanket shoved into a corner of it, and a well-stocked mini fridge hidden under a countertop.

Loki found himself almost as fascinated by his conversations with Tony as with his AI. He was almost as quick and bright and stuffed full of knowledge. The biggest difference was that Tony's wit was a lot less dry – it could be sarcastic, yeah, but it was also crude, wildly inappropriate, full of horrible puns and obscure, nerdy pop-culture references. He was a chaotic mess that moved lightning-fast from deep, scientific speculations to a dirty play on words, skipped through equations that made fuses burn in Loki's brain, and rounded it all up with a Star Wars joke. 

They were also similar in more ways than Loki would have guessed. Tony had a streak for mischief that was a mile wide, he was wildly curious, and had a blatant disregard for playing by the rules. When Tony had called him a ”clever, tricky little shit” as a compliment it had actually been just that. Because Tony himself was very much a clever, tricky little shit.

He became more and more convinced that leaving Tony would be what Loki missed the most, when this all came to an end.

Maybe it was that realization that made him do what he did next. It might also have been the three glasses of scotch he'd downed during the night of conversation on the couch by the wide windows overlooking the ocean. At least they were probably a catalyst.

What he did was this:

In the middle of a detailed explanation of some of the finer points of JARVIS's code, Loki slipped sideways in his seat, tipped his head and unceremoniously planted his lips on Tony's, effectively shutting him up. Even though that hadn't exactly been the goal. He could have listened to the man speak forever.

Even when he did it, he knew it was a stupid move. Tony had done exactly nothing to indicate that he was interested in that kind of attention from his ”lab assistant”, Loki just... couldn't resist. He knew that was a pretty gross line of reasoning, and promised himself that the instant Tony showed a sign of resistance, he'd back the fuck off.

What came wasn't exactly resistance, but when Tony turned still as a statue under his mouth Loki still let go, and started leaning back. Wide, dark eyes were on his face, something oddly cool and calculated passing by behind them for a second, so quick Loki thought he'd imagined it. Excited fascination took its place. If it had even been there at all.

Tony's hand wrapped around his wrist, skin so warm and unexpectedly soft and smooth despite all his metalwork. That hand held him in place, then pulled him in closer as Tony's head tilted back invitingly, soft lips parting just a little, and Loki knew that wasn't resistance, at least.

He never let Loki past his teeth, but somehow the kiss still turned heated and intimate. And that was before Tony's mouth dropped to Loki's neck, doing perfectly outrageous things to the sensitive spot right below his ear.

”Fuck, Tony, please...” Unbidden Loki's long, pale hands came to grasp at the hem of Tony's t-shirt, trying to slide under it.

”No, wait...” With a soft hum taking the edge of the objection, Tony leaned back. And grinned. ”Just let me.” His hands curled around Loki's wide shoulders and pushed him back effortlessly, so much stronger than his slim frame gave away. Then his hands moved to tug Loki's sweatpants and underwear down to his knees as soon as he followed directions, placing his legs across Tony's lap in the same movement. A warm hand came caressing up one of his thighs to the dip of his hip, the shadow there dark against his pale skin.

Tony made a low, appreciative noise in the back of his throat as his fingertips skimmed through trimmed pubic hair, traced the treasure trail to his navel, making his lower abdominals clench, before they turned back, brushed the base of his cock, and then left completely.

Before Loki had managed to gather enough breath to voice a protest he saw Tony's hand go to one of the little drawers so cleverly hidden under the edge of the coffee table, picking a small tube out of it. Then he gave a chuckle while he swept his hair out of his forehead with a slightly unsteady hand of his own, watching Tony snap it open.

”Should have known a playboy would always have lube at hand”, he smirked.

Raising an eyebrow Tony turned back to him. ”Are you complaining?” The challenge was clear even in his throaty voice, his slicked hand closing around Loki for real this time.

His mouth dropped open to give an answer, but all that came out was a garbled moan. And as Tony's wickedly skilled hand kept stroking and teasing, that was all he could get out at all. He could honestly barely suck down enough air to live.

Tony's free hand, warm and heavy, slid up Loki's stomach to his chest, seeming undecided if it meant to pin him down by his sturnum or stroke his pectorals. Either way it ended up doing a bit of both, a thumb rubbing circles over a nipple in the process.

It was almost embarrassing how quickly Loki came, even with some really expensive alcohol burning in his veins. 

After letting go of his rapidly softening cock Tony's hand – now slick with both remnants of lube and cum – settled on Loki's waist. Tony gave a long, slightly shuddering exhale and leaned forward over him, forehead coming to rest heavily against Loki's chest. Heavy, but not uncomfortably so. Sort of steadying, actually, when the world still felt like it was tilting and spinning.

”That wasn't part of the plan”, Tony muttered, voice muffled in the space between their bodies.

”Are you complaining?” Loki was aiming for the same challenging tone Tony had directed at him just minutes before, but he was too shaky to really hit it.

Chuckling, Tony shook his head without lifting it from Loki's sternum. ”Not even a little.” Then he finally looked up, giving Loki a grin full of smug satisfaction. ”I'd say it's above and beyond anything I ever hoped for.”

Not sure what to make of that statement, Loki just let his head tip back onto the seat of the couch, eyelids drooping.

He fell asleep with the warm weight of Tony's head on his chest and his pants still around his knees.

* * *

”The only real issue I'd say is that he's too perfect.” Loki leaned back in his chair and threw his legs up on the empty worktable in front of him. ”Real humans don't know everything. We have gaps in our knowledge and we can't fill them in fractions of a second. We have flaws. And we have moods. The most I get out of JARVIS is mild exasperation.” He made a gesture to the ceiling – a habit that was difficult to break even though he knew full well that JARVIS didn't reside in the ceilings. It was just the human need to address _something_ that felt tangible, he guessed. Which was another issue, come to think if it... ”And, well, of course the obvious lack of a physical body. That's... you know, difficult to explain away. He can't communicate through phone and text forever, if you plan on passing him off as human.”

Tony nodded, but didn't look concerned. ”Believe it or not, that's the easy part. Getting the programming to work right, _feel right_ , that's the real challenge.” He was standing on the other side of the table, tapping one of his holographic screens, taking notes while they talked. ”And you're right. The emotions aren't really there yet, are they? I need to work on that.”

”Not that I don't like how perfectly unflappable he is”, Loki added. ”It's kind of a nice contrast to how passionate and capricious you are, but it's not very human.”

Slowly, Tony's head turned at that. Eyes again so wide and fascinated. And then his face split into a grin. ”Easy there. One might get the impression that you like me.”

Since something about Tony had always drawn out his childish responses, Loki stuck his tongue out at him for that. Which made them both break down laughing.

When they calmed back down Tony went back to his notes, still smiling, while Loki interlocked his fingers behind his head, rocking the seat of the chair a little, and looked around the huge workshop. The line of extraordinary cars, the robotic arms Tony treated almost as much as living beings as he did JARVIS, tools and screens and metal scraps everywhere. There was really only one thing not on display, and oddly enough Loki hadn't thought of it until then.

”Speaking of bodies. Sort of.” 

”Hmm?” Tony didn't look up from squinting at his numbers.

”Where do you keep your Iron Man armour?”

For a moment, Tony tensed up. Then he turned, swiping the screen away in the movement. ”Why do you ask?” For the first time since they had met, there was a note of something dangerous in Tony's tone.

Quickly Loki slipped his hands free, pulling his hair a bit in the process. ”Hey, Tony, I come in peace! All right? It was just a question.”

Tony gave a little snort, but relaxed at least a bit. ”Yeah, well, in my experience nothing people ask about the suit is ever 'just a question'. And given how the suit and I are one, I tend to get... defensive.” There was no apology in his tone, nothing to say he was sorry about assuming the worst, and Loki couldn't blame him.

He let the subject drop.

Loki's own brain wouldn't let him drop it, however. As usual his curiosity was his own worst enemy, the urge and need to know, to find out, to tease out the truth. It wasn't even that he wanted to know where the suit was kept. Not really. He didn't care much about that. But there was the part where Tony had said that ”the suit and I are one”, and if there was something Loki wanted to know more about, it was Tony. The Iron Man suit was secondary to that, but an important clue he had so far forgotten existed.

That night, when Tony as usual was busy working, Loki went sneaking out on the balcony, his little laptop hidden in a blanket. JARVIS had no cameras out in the open, so here he could work without being observed.

As stealthily as he had ever worked Loki made his way into Tony's private files. JARVIS was a part of the safety measures in place around them, but Loki knew the AI well by now. He had few weaknesses, but Loki knew them all. A tiny part of him felt a bit bad about what he was doing, but his moral compass had always been way off true north when it came to this kind of intrusion.

He wanted to know more about the man he had a crush on. Hacking into that man's secure server to do so felt perfectly reasonable.

It didn't take Loki long to find folder upon folder about the suit. From the crude model Tony had based his work on, through the simply hilarious run of tests that had ended Tony bruised and battered and sprayed by fire extingushers and wildly triumphant even so, to in the end make it a work of engineering art.

But one detail caught his attention through it all – the glowing circle in Tony's chest. The arc reactor. Keeping shrapnel out of Tony's heart, he figured out. And also powering the suit.

Loki was sure Tony didn't have that in his chest anymore. He'd seen Tony in just a tank top, so worn it was almost see-through – honestly, bless that tank top – and he'd have noticed. He would definitely have noticed. Frowning, deep in thought, Loki followed the trail, trying to find out what had happened to the device that had kept Tony alive at one point.

The more he read, the more he felt his heart speed up as blood drained from his face, leaving his cheeks cold and tingling.

He quickly flipped through file after file on palladium poisoning, the futile search for a viable replacement, reading between the lines in lengthy notes and calculations, seeing how Tony had become increasingly more desperate. Until he happened upon a video among the files, the last thing in the folder. The timestamp placed it just a month or so before Tony had completely isolated himself from the world. Swallowing, Loki clicked play, and saw Tony come into focus on the screen. Although he barely recognized the man. He looked drained, bone-weary, grayish pale, cheeks hollow and eyes sunken into shadows. Loki could make out traces of what looked like odd, spikey, black veins clawing up his neck.

”I don't really know why I feel the need to record this for posterity, but I'm doing it anyway. This might be the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark. As a truly great man once said. So, fuck it.” Tony took a break to catch his breath, looking winded after just that short speach. ”As of today, I'm giving up on the palladium fix. There isn't one. I'm just wasting what little time I have left. So, instead I'm spending that time on a new project – Me, Mark II.” 

A weak smirk pulled at Tony's pale, thin lips in the footage as he raised a pad into frame, showing a detailed wire frame model of... well, himself. Alongside line upon line of what at a quick glance reminded Loki a lot of what he'd seen of JARVIS's code, but was far more complex. But before he could read it closer, the Tony in the clip gave a strangled chuckle, and he had to meet those dark eyes, gleaming and with pupils blown wide with pain that wasn't possible to hide.

”Tony Stark is dead”, he muttered, and then his face split into his trademark grin, which looked horrifying on those tortured features. ”Long live Tony Stark.”

The screen went dark.

At the same time a movement at the door made Loki snap the laptop shut and look up with a start. Finding Tony leaning with a shoulder on the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest, looking at Loki with an expression somewhere between self-depracating and betrayed.

”I knew about the A+ snooping, so I should have expected this, really.” He sounded tired. ”I guess I underestimated your abilities, kid. Never thought you'd get into my personal stuff that easily.”

In Loki's mind puzzle pieces were rapidly falling into place, turning everything he'd thought he knew upside down. Tony's healthy look and soft hands. The way Tony looked so wide-eyed and fascinated and smug all at once when Loki made a comment about him, his quirks, his personality, anything truly _him_. His reaction when Loki had kissed him, and... Oh. Yes, well... That part really must have exceeded any expectation of how well Tony thought he'd pass for human.

”You really did bring me here to evaluate an AI”, he said, feeling dizzy, like he'd been knocked over the head. ”It just wasn't JARVIS.”

With a huff of wry laughter Tony pushed away from the doorjamb, walked out onto the balcony and sank down into a crouch in front of Loki, where he was huddled on the stone floor, still half wrapped in the blanket. Elbows on his knees, right hand clasping his left forearm. 

Looking up at Tony like that, taking in every casual little movement, every shift in his expression, Loki still had a hard time making himself believe he wasn't looking at a human being.

”Of course it wasn't JARVIS”, Tony said with a sigh. ”He's amazing, but he was never intended to pass for human.”

”I wondered about that”, Loki admitted. ”There were so many things you wouldn't have needed me to figure out if this really had been just 'a final tweak', like you said. Or I would have wondered about that, if I'd let myself question it.”

”Why didn't you?” Tony's head tilted curiously to the side. ”You're bright. I assumed you'd figure at least that part out eventually.”

”Really?” Raising an eyebrow Loki let his head tip in a mirror tilt. ”You need to ask that? That part should be even more obvious.”

All he got was a frown.

”If I did that, you would say we were all done and kick me out”, Loki explained, and watched Tony blink. ”And I didn't want to leave. Don't want to leave. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

”Oh.” With that Tony let his knees drop to the floor with a thump, looking a bit knocked over the head too. ”I guess that explains it. I was never good at reading those signs even when I was alive.”

The casual confirmation of the fact that Loki was essentially speaking to a ghost made a little chill slip down his spine. But it wasn't altogether unpleasant. So he shoved the blanket and laptop aside, pushed up on his own knees and shuffled closer. Until he could place his hands on his thighs and lean closer, tipped his head down, nosed at Tony's face until he tilted his own head accordingly, and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

Tony was smiling up at him when Loki pulled back enought to see it.

”So, lab assistant. You have that evaluation ready?”


End file.
